Day 6- Cancer- 12/11/2014

Hello, people. How are you doing today? I'm Nate ,and this is Med Ed. The only blog where you can learn to save a life in a few clicks and some of your time. Today, I chose something I found interesting and important. We are learning about cancer. I feel like people just aren't educated. Most people I know just use it for an excuse to wear pink, as if breast cancer is the only one. Anyway, grab your snacks, and let's dive straight in.
13,000,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer, with the number growing by 1,000,000 a year. Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. It develops when the body's normal control mechanism stops working. Old, worn out cells don't die and it grows out of control, forming new, abnormal cells.
The types of cancer fall into 5 main categories. Carcinoma is the first one. It consists of cancers that start in the skin or tissue around the organs. There are a number of subtypes, including adenocarcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma. Sarcoma is the second one. It includes cancer started in the bone, fat, muscle, cartilage, blood vessels, and other supportive tissue.
Third is the leukemia. This type happens when cancer affects bone marrow and other blood forming tissue. It causes large numbers of abnormal blood cells to be produced and enter the blood.  Fourth is lymphoma and myeloma. Its cancer that starts in the immune system. Finally, there's central nervous system cancer. It's fairly self explanatory.
That's all she wrote for today. I'll see you later for another installment of Med Ed. This one is going to be another request.

Day 5- Open Heart Surgery- 12/9/2014

Hello Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Med Ed. The only shoe where you can learn to save a life with a few clicks and some of your time. Today, as requested by my friend, Tripp, we are taking it up a few levels. Open heart surgery everyone. So, get you dictionaries out and lets get learning.
Open Heart surgery is any type of surgery where the chest is cut open and surgery is done on the muscles, arteries, or valves of the heart. The most common type is called coronary artery bypass grafting. It's when you take a healthy vein or artery is grafted onto to a blocked coronary to bypass the blockage. Open heart surgery is often called "traditional heart surgery" because now er days, most docs use small incisions.
I know what your asking, "If I don't have to e get my entire chest taken out, why would I?" That is a good question. It is used for patients with coronary heart disease. This occurs when arteries and veins that carry blood and oxygen become hard and narrow. This is commonly called "hardening of the arteries." CHD is also caused when fatty material builds up against the walls of a vein or artery, occasionally leading to heart attacks. This is why over weight individuals are more at risk to heart attack than the average person.
How do you do such a gross looking and dangerous thing you may be asking yourself. Simple:

1. Load the patient with anesthesia
2. Make an 8-10 inch cut in the chest.
3. Cut through the breast bone to reveal the heart.
4. Connect the patient to a heart-lung bypass machine. This machine moves blood from the heart so the surgery can begin. 
5. Graft the healthy part onto the patient's blocked vein or artery.
6. Close the breast bone with a wire, leaving the wire inside.
7. Stitch up the cut in the chest.

Easy as pie. It isn't all fun and games though. There are a few risks involved. For example, chest infection, heart attack, stroke, irregular heart beat, lung failure, kidney failure, chest pain, low fever, memory loss, blood clot, blood loss, and breathing difficulty. This topic really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It really is quite interesting. That's all I have for today, but I will be back in a bit with a new topic. Audios.

Day 4- First Aid 3- 12/8/2014

Welcome people of the internet. My name is Nate, and this is Med Ed. The show where you can save a life with a few clicks and some of your time. How you guys doing? Anyway, today is the last part of the first aid series where I'll be covering the stuff I missed.

• EpiPen- Say you have a friend with a reaction to bees. You follow? Good. So, this friend gets stung. What do you do? They should have an EpiPen if they aren't stupid so I'll teach you how to use it.  EpiPens have a mix of a chemical called epinephrine and an agent that loosens the throat. DON'T STAB YOURSELF. You will be injured... terribly. The EpiPen should have a cap on it, so take it off. Stab the patient with the needle aiming for the middle of the thigh. Make sure there are no pocket items in the way. 
•  CPR- For CPR, the rules change a lot, and I mean a lot. I find best not to mention what the rules of it are in case they change. I suggest looking it up. As far as defibrillators go, the AED device should instruct you what to do in a loud, obnoxious voice. You are not trained for real ones. Take any clothes off in between pad A and pad B while still preserving privacy. If someone has a band that says, "Do not defibrillate", they can sue you if you save their lives... yeah.
• Finally, we come to the topic of... infections. Everyone's favorite thing. Since it is such an expansive and *interesting* topic, I'll just give you the link. http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/injuries_and_poisoning/first_aid/wounds.html